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Savannah City Council members offered some novel approaches to fighting crime at Thursday’s workshop, ideas fueled by the belief that hiring more officers isn’t the only answer.

Maybe one deterrent, Mayor Edna Jackson proposed, is a “100 worst repeat offenders” list, which would be broadcast in the community, put on posters and presented at Neighborhood Association and PTA meetings.

Her idea stems from Savannah-Chatham police Chief Willie Lovett confirming for council that one problem police face is the number of repeat offenders on the street who have multiple arrests. That resonated with Mayor Pro Tem Van Johnson, who is arguing that more officers on the street will not reduce crime.

“We can make arrests all day long,” Johnson said, “but we’re putting them into a (corrections) system that is fundamentally broken. By the time the officer who arrested them gets off duty, they’re already back out on the street.”

Lovett wasn’t sure whether there would be legal issues with publicly displaying “worst offenders,” but council members clearly wanted to explore it.

They also discussed having council members visit schools to discuss staying out of trouble and reaching out to churches and PTAs to work with youth. Council members have publicly pledged to put all their efforts behind reducing violent crime following the shooting of eight people at the Coastal Empire Fairgrounds earlier this month.

Lovett has asked for $3 million to create a 30-member drug unit, but council members say they are waiting on a revised budget request that would phase in hiring and costs over several years.

Council members want that so they can determine the impact on the 2013 budget, which must be passed by the end of the year.

The current budget doesn’t include police funding additions, so council would either need to cut expenses or raise property taxes.

Even if council provided all the funding the chief sought, he has told council it would take about a year to hire and train the additional officers.

Council has authorized paying overtime for a 15-member undercover unit, but Lovett explained after the council workshop that because of current staffing levels, only six officers are assigned to the Neighborhood Task Force. That unit doesn’t permanently assign officers, but pulls them from patrol to respond to special operations or upticks in crime, whether drug operations, prostitution or theft of bicycles.

An undercurrent of tension was obvious during part of the workshop. Acting City Manager Stephanie Cutter told council if it provided additional funds it also would need to measure improvements and hold staff accountable for performance.

Johnson followed by telling Lovett if he did not get his full funding request, he couldn’t blame any crime problems on a lack of funding.

Lovett responded he had never blamed his budget for crime.

After the meeting, he added, “This is the first time I’ve asked for additional personnel. I would not have asked for them if I didn’t think they were necessary.”

He also assured he would do the best he could with the officers he has.

While the city has had a series of high-profile homicides this year, the department’s overall crime data shows most offenses are down, some dramatically.

Residential burglaries are down by more than 450 compared year to date to 2010. Shoplifting, street robberies and thefts also are down.

Homicide is up compared to 2010, but year to date, is lower than last year. Commercial robberies, however, have nearly doubled year to date from the previous two years.

Alderman John Hall told Lovett people in the community are afraid and some are arming themselves. He asked Lovett to share as much of his police plan as he could with council, and indicated the expectation the chief and his officers face.

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Police officers, firemen, and so forth should get a stipend to live in some of the high crime areas throughout Savannah. Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. did a documentary a few years ago on PBS- America Beyond the Color Line- about poverty and crime in Chicago. I learned from the documentary that many children do not see positive role models in their neighborhoods anymore. When soldiers move to Savannah, they are informed that certain neighborhoods in Savannah are drug infested and too dangerous. We can combat some of the crime and poverty in city by integrating our neighborhoods with more role models; moreover, we need to physically clean the streets and neighborhoods.

I knew it when Edna said it a few weeks ago that council would never get around to enforcing the Parental Responsibility Ordinance by prosecuting the delinquent parents of criminal children. The ordinance has been in place for five years and has never been enforced. Jailing parents would the THE MOST EFFECTIVE MEANS OF CURTAILING YOUTH CRIME, but I'll leave it to you to wonder WHY it isn't enforced.

This "workshop"-- and I use the term loosely to describe what this do-nothing administration does when it meets-- underscores the poverty of ideas and the total lack of focus of the Jackson regime. They sound more like a bunch of old ladies sitting around a kitchen table and moaning over their morning gossip. These people have NO IDEA how to govern for if they did, THEY WOULD START BY ENFORCING LAWS ALREADY ON THE BOOKS. Instead, all we get is MORE COPS WHO DO NOT ENFORCE THE LAWS.

Thugs and parents of thugs do not go to PTA meetings, neighborhood meetings or church. You would be preaching to the choir. Thugs are immune to any preaching, anyway. They know It's all talk because they've gotten away with being thugs for years. City leaders and politicians: stop talking and act. Start prosecuting and punish swiftly; word will get around.

I have all ideas making a public list of top offenders would backfire. Thugs are not ashamed of being thugs; they are proud of it. I can readily imagine them vying to see who can get highest place on the list. QUIETLY put them off the streets with no fanfare.

I have all ideas making a public list of top offenders would backfire. Thugs are not ashamed of being thugs; they are proud of it. I can readily imagine them vying to see who can get highest place on the list. QUIETLY put them off the streets with no fanfare.

Need to build bigger prisons so we can keep them locked up for the duration of the sentence imposed. Make prison an unpleasant experience. Right now they have a good time shooting the bull and watching cable TV. Make them work or lock them down. It's really pretty simple.

Funding for additional police and the strategies proposed by the Chief of Police is the single most important thing the City must do in order to fight the rising problem of gun violence in Savannah. Yes, some of the other suggestions make sense, but they are things that you do along with giving the police the resources necessary to fight the problems. Increasing police presence in high crime areas, including beat cops and community policing, and an expanded drug unit, are absolutely essential to getting it under control.

The politicians are offering weak solutions and weak excuses because they do not want to cut money from other programs in order to fund the police at the level requested by the Chief. I think that Savannah residents should hold the Mayor and the Council's collective feet to the fire and tell them that they better get serious about fighting the crime problem or look for new jobs. If crime becomes a long term, chronic problem in Savannah, all other aspects of City life will be affected negatively, especially the important tourism industry. The time to get serious, make the fight the number one priority and to act is now.

Publishing a list of the 100 Worst Repeat Offenders is an open invitation to start a competition among thugs for top honors. Probably one of the STUPIDEST solutions I've heard coming out of a clowncil that is totally bereft of ideas. Let us now move toward a recall vote of the mayor and council and hope that the Meg Heap dynamic kicks in among voters. We simply cannot wait four years for these idiots to deal with a problem as serious as our crime epidemic.

Most of the new officers come out of the academy excited and ready to work...They start making arrests....Their supervisor starts to think they are racist and starts to ask why they only arrest minorities....after being accused of such nonsense the officer decides well if I want to keep my job I better stop being proactive. Multiplyy this times 100 and that is why the crime rate goes up and why there is so much turnover on the Dept...

Placing positive role models on bad blocks doesn't work in Savannah. I am familiar with a situation where an investor came to Savannah and bought 3 beautiful old masonry houses which were vacant and run down. He invested close to $1,000,000 renovating them and they were spectacular with all the bells and whistles. He then had trouble renting them as no one decent would live in that area. So he offered a Savannah Police officer free rent to live in one apartment but his offer was turned down - then he offered the officer a salary to live in one - and he was still turned down. No decent person wants to bring their family into crime infested areas of Savannah no matter how sweet the deal and no decent person wanted to rent those apartments. He eventually tried to rent them at half the market rent - but still had no takers and ended up losing everything. Last time I drove by it looked like the average tenant was dealing drugs or prostituting. So much for installing role models in some of our "finer" neighborhoods. Some of us value a better quality of life in choosing where to live.

When Flynn was chief....he was pushed out because of the same problems that the current chief has. What they need is a competent command staff and a Chief that has fresh ideas...They need to be told it is okay to be proactive and do your job..Only then will you see a crack down on crime...How are they going to fill thirty new positions when they can barely keep the officers they have now....They spend more money training new officers every year than they would on giving them a pay raise to keep those they have.

The fine for littering is $200.00 , most people have no knowledge of this. If this law was enforced the City of Savannah would no doubt raise the revenue for additional police officers. The beneifit of enforcing this law would mean that I would no longer have to pick up the trash thrown from cars, school buses and the undesirble foot trafic that passes by my home on a daily basis. Savannah is a dirty filthy city with some real lazy city employee's, such as Larry Meyers in the Trash and Recycling...............Please do not consider raising property taxes, I am tired of being responsible for those who toss their beer cans and their worn out wigs in my yard............How about some PSA's from the CIty of Savannah, gosh I forgot, city offical's probaly have never heard of a PSA.........Public Service Anouncement.... They Work, so try it, use billboards and air time and use the funds set aside for membership dues to your black only NFPBA or whatever it is club.......and in closing, it makes me so sick when I see a school bus going down the road with a trail of candy wrappers flying out the windows, I just think to myself that in 2012 the children of the future have no respect for the earth they live on...Shame on you Savannah...start enforcing the laws

Why yes, it would be so much more important to enforce the litter laws than deal with REAL crime. Sarcastic.

If you think some PSAs will work with the people that litter, I have some beachfront property I want to sell you. Sarcastic again.

Take down the bus numbers of the kids throwing candy wrappers out of the bus and call the Board of Education with your complaint. Keep on doing that everyday until they hire someone to ride on every bus to make sure the kids don't throw a candy wrapper out the window. Then you can sit back and enjoy your increase school taxes so they can pay all these employees.

I have a better idea since you are so concerned with the candy wrappers. Get a group together to pick up the candy wrappers every Saturday.

I may have missed something really important in your post since it was all jumbled together in one paragraph and got boring. Gee, Golly, wow, I hope not.

you must be a graduate from the Chatham County School System...............................................................................................................................................................................................................This is the first sentence of my post....please note the reference to revenue for additional police officers...............................................................................................................................................................................................................I believe police officers are typically used for REAL CRIME issues.

"The fine for littering is $200.00 , most people have no knowledge of this. If this law was enforced the City of Savannah would no doubt raise the revenue for additional police officers. "

Sorry you are unable to comprehend and move beyond your lame opinion. I read your post. I got what you were saying, just found it to be idiotic.

Littering is the least of Savannah and Chatham County's worries. Don't you get it? You want some Police Officers riding around giving tickets for littering when there's already not enough officers to respond to real crime?

Seriously, get a grip on reality of all the crimes going on here and you will realize litter is insignificant. Drugs, shootings, murders, robberies and home break-ins are so much more important than litter!

Pick the litter up from your yard or let it be. It's up to you. I don't care. I know for a fact I don't live anywhere near you!

After Otis raked in who knows how many hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money over the years for the Youth Futures Authority (which was supposed to help alleviate this very situation) to no avail. His protege, Van Johnson II, has apparently decided to talk these street thugs into making "better choices". Well it will probably be as effective as anything Otis did, is cheaper, and less annoying to us and the thugs.

You probably posted that in all sincerity, and I have to agree with you, but when looking at the big picture, I have say Van could make the thugs laugh. Laughter is probably something something Otis could accomplish with the thugs.

In the end nothing will be accomplished, other than Van doing this while getting paid from the county because his absence is not personal leave time.

will that list also include the city clowncil members and the mayor's picture?

As for the portrait of Otis, yep, it does indeed "look like him". I guess that means it passes the sight test! Do we now hire the artist full time at an inflated cost with travel benefits, perks, and a credit card in the city's name?